Sunday, November 29, 2009

The blog posts are starting to be quite behind my baking, which can only mean one thing: I'm on inpatient again. Yes, inpatient pediatrics. And it's that time of year for RSV and influenza and all sorts of other goodies so it has been quite busy.

I made these a couple of weeks ago, inspired a prior attending's craving for a snickers bar one afternoon. It was aright after Halloween, so I was able to buy those cute little "fun sized" snickers on sale. I brainstormed for quite a while about what to do about the nougat part of the snickers bar, which is actually my favorite part. The nougat recipes I found online didn't really appeal to me. That meant that I had to be creative.

I made mini-cupcakes, so I decided not to add on any peanuts since I thought that would be sensory overload. However, don't let my choice stop you from topping the cuppies off with some peanuts. Heck, put them inside of your cupcakes!

I think that I may have mentioned this in a prior cuppy post, but it's worth typing it again: you do not want to pinch pennies when purchasing your cocoa powder! It's worth it to buy some nice chocolate - you'll be able to taste a difference.

Snickers Cupcakes

Chocolate & Snickers Cake - makes approximately 4 dozen mini-cupcakes

1 cup milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

approximately 24 fun-sized snickers, frozen and then cut in half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line mini-cupcake pans with paper liners

Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl.

Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla to the above mixture and beat with an electric mixer until nice and foamy.

In a separate smaller bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (minus the snickers) together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until smooth and well mixed.

Fill the paper liners approximately 3/4 full of batter. Place a frozen half piece of snickers into the cupcake, cut end down.

Bake for about 13-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Ok, so why put the Snickers cut end down? Because otherwise you might get a little cave in your cupcake when the caramel starts to bubble in the oven:

Actually, it's not that big of a deal since you can just cover it with some frosting!

Chocolate Malt Frosting - enough to cover 48 mini cupcakes

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla

heaping 1/3 cup of chocolate malt powder

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/4 cup milk

Cut the stick of butter into smaller pieces and place into a medium sized bowl

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.

Add the chocolate malt powder and cocoa powder to the milk in a small bowl. Whisk until the powders have dissolved.

Add the vanilla to the milk mixture and stir with a spoon.

Alternate adding the milk mixture and the confectioner's sugar to the butter, mixing well after each addition. You may use more or less confectioner's sugar, based on the consistency you desire.

If the frosting becomes too stiff, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time.

This may have been the best job that I have done with a frosting completely from my imagination. Mmmm I love malted milk, and I think it did a good job taking the place of the nougat.

And last but not least... top off those cuppy babies with a little caramel syrup. No one will know if you use store bought syrup, which is what I did.

Oh yes. Much better. I made these the night before and put them in the refrigerator overnight and they still tasted great the next day.

One last note. I normally used a Wilton 1M tip to decorate my cupcakes. I used a 2D tip, which I think I like better.